Installing Cisco Emergency Responder 8.6

Cisco Emergency Responder (Emergency Responder) is distributed on an installation DVD that contains everything that is required to install Emergency Responder 8.6, including the Cisco Unified Communications Operating System software.

Hardware and Software Prerequisites

Cisco ER requires specific hardware and software to run properly. Review the following sections before you proceed with the installation or upgrade to Emergency Responder 8.6:

•See the Release Notes for Cisco Emergency Responder 8.6 to verify that you have all the hardware and software, and in the supported versions, that you must install for Emergency Responder and to check that your Cisco MCS Unified Communications Manager Appliance platform provides the Emergency Responder capabilities to meet your configuration needs. (You can also use equivalent Cisco-certified servers.)

Before You Install or Upgrade

The Emergency Responder 8.6 installation process installs both the platform software and the Emergency Responder 8.6 software. During the installation, you are prompted to enter information needed by the system to complete the installation.

Note Cisco recommends that you perform the installation or upgrade during off-peak hours. The installation/upgrade procedure completely reformats the hard disk, so Emergency Responder 8.6 is unavailable for the duration of the installation or upgrade.

Review the following information before you install or upgrade your system to Emergency Responder 8.6:

•Upgrading to Emergency Responder 8.6:

–Before you upgrade to Emergency Responder 8.6, you must ensure that it is compatible with your existing version of Cisco Unified CM. You can use the Cisco Unified Communications Compatibility Tool to research this issue: http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/vtgsca/VTGServlet

–You must upgrade Emergency Responder before you upgrade Cisco Unified CM. Only after you have installed the new version of Emergency Responder can you then upgrade Cisco Unified CM.

–Once you have upgraded both Emergency Responder and Cisco Unified CM, you must then update the Cisco Unified CM Version on Emergency Responder.

–See Table 2-1 for the correct upgrade order and additional information on this subject.

•Emergency Responder Versions:

–Different versions of Emergency Responder cannot be deployed in the same Emergency Responder group. The primary and the standby Emergency Responder servers must be running the same version of Emergency Responder. If you are upgrading to Emergency Responder 8.6, make sure to upgrade both Emergency Responder servers to version 8.6.

Note Emergency Responder 8.6 supports interoperability between two server groups in a cluster running different versions of Emergency Responder. One server group in a cluster may be running Emergency Responder 8.6 while another server group in the cluster is running Emergency Responder 1.3, Emergency Responder 2.0.x, Emergency Responder 7.x and Emergency Responder 8.0. However, Emergency Responder 8.6 will not interoperate with versions earlier than Emergency Responder 1.3.

•Determine and list your Emergency Responder hostname and passwords.

–Decide on a permanent hostname, user interface administrator name and password for the Emergency Responder server before you install Emergency Responder. Changing the hostname of a Emergency Responder server after installation may cause problems.

–The hostname for the Emergency Responder 8.6 Publisher and Subscriber must not contain the underscore character (_). If you have an existing Emergency Responder server with an underscore in its hostname, change the hostname of the server before installing Emergency Responder 8.6.

–Decide on a password for Cicso ER administrative user.

Note The Emergency Responder administrative users password must be at least six characters long and can contain alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It must start with an alphanumeric character.

•Ethernet NIC speed and duplex mode:

–Decide if you want to enable autonegotiation of Ethernet NIC speed and duplex

–If yes, you don't need any additional information

–If no, determine what Ethernet NIC speed and duplex mode you will use

•DHCP Configuration

–Decide if you want to use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to allocate IP addresses

–If yes, you don't need any additional information

–If no, you need the hostname, IP address, IP mask, and gateway address to enter for the Static Network Configuration

•NTP Client information

–The system prompts you to set up external Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers. Cisco recommends that you use external NTP servers to ensure that the system time is accurate.

–If you decide to use external NTP servers, you must enter the IP address or hostname of the servers.

–If you do not choose to use external NTP servers, you must enter the system date and time clock information manually.

Note Use of NTP server is mandatory when installing Emergency Responder 8.6 on UCS servers.

•Decide on a Database Access Security password

–The system requires a database access security password to allow the nodes in a servergroup to communicate. The password is shared with all nodes in the servergroup.

–The password must be at least six characters long and can contain alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It must start with an alphanumeric character.

•SMTP Host Configuration (optional)

–Decide if you want to use an SMTP host.

–If yes, determine the hostname or IP address of the SMTP host.

•Caveats:

–Review the release notes for Emergency Responder 8.6 before installation:

Note Ensure that you use ESXi, rather than ESX, to run Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server. However, the server can be part of a VMware vCenter that includes ESX hosts.

VMware—vMotion

No

Note Cisco does not support vMotion on a VM that is running. However, Cisco does support powering-down a VM, then rebooting the VM on a different rack server. This may be helpful if you want to put a rack server into maintenance mode.

VMware—Site Recovery Manager

Yes

VMware—High Availability

Yes

VMware—Data Recovery (VDR)

Yes

All other unlisted VMware features

Not supported

To operate Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server successfully, you should have the experience and skills to manage a host server running VMware ESXi. If you do not have this experience and want to obtain the required information quickly, consider using VMware GO, a Web-based application that facilitates VMware.

Configuring RAID

If you purchased the UCS server separately, configure the RAID settings to the following specifications:

•The first 2 drives are configured as a RAID 1 (mirrored) drive. This drive is for ESXi installation.

•The next 4 drives are configured as a RAID 5 drive. This drive is for VMs.

Note Number of drives may be different in different version of UCS servers.

Follow this procedure to perform this task:

Step 1 During server bootup, press Ctrl+Y to enter the preboot CLI.

Step 2 Enter the following commands to determine the current RAID configuration:

-ldinfo -l0 -a0

-ldinfo -l1 -a0

The required configuration is two drives in a RAID 1 array for logical drive 0, and four drives in a RAID

5 array for Logical drive 1. If the RAID configuration is wrong, continue with this procedure.

Note Do not continue with this procedure if RAID is configured correctly.

Step 3 Enter the command -cfgclr -a0 to clear the RAID configuration.

Caution Clearing the RAID configuration deletes all data on the hard drives.

Step 4 Enter the following commands to configure RAID:

-cfgldadd -r1 [252:0, 252:1] -a0

-cfgldadd -r5 [252:2, 252:3, 252:4, 252:5] -a0

If the hard drives did not have a RAID configuration previously, you are done configuring RAID. If the

hard drives had a RAID configuration before, continue with this procedure.

Step 5 Enter the following commands to initialize the logical volumes.

-ldinit -start -full -l0 -a0 (l0 is the letter l and the number 0, not the number 10)

-ldinit -start -full -l1 -a0 (l1 is the letter l and the number 1, not the number 11)

This clears data on the drives and initializes the new array.

Step 6 Allow these commands to finish running before exiting the Preboot CLI. Enter the following commands

to display the progress of the commands:

-ldinit -showprog -l0 -a0

-ldinit -showprog -l1 -a0

When both commands report that no initialization is running, it is safe to quit the Preboot CLI.

Step 7 After configuring the two logical volumes, you can exit the Preboot CLI by entering q.

Installing vSphere Client

When the virtual host is available on the network, you can browse to its IP address to bring up a web-based interface. The vSphere Client is Windows-based, so the download and install must be performed from a Windows PC.

Once the vSphere Client is installed, you can run it and log into the virtual host using the virtual host's name or IP address, the root login ID, and the password you configured.

You can join the host to a vCenter if you want to manage it through vCenter.

Aligning the Datastore Used for VMs

When you install VMWare ESXi, the second logical volume is automatically imported unaligned. VMs have better disk performance when all partitions (physical, ESXi and VM) start on the same boundary.

This prevents disk blocks being fragmented across the different boundaries.

To ensure that the ESXi partition used for VMs are aligned, you should delete the unaligned datastore (the larger disk partition---407 GB), then recreate the datastore using vSphere client.

Creating Virtual Machines

Cisco provides a VM template for you to download and transfer to your Virtual Host. Use this template to create the VM for Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server installation.

Before you deploy the template and create the VM, you should have a hostname and IP address allocated for the new VM.

Follow these steps to create a VM and prepare to install Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server:

Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server Licensing

Customer Impact from New Licensing Procedures

Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server uses a different licensing model than Cisco Emergency Responder on an MCS server. The MAC address of the NIC card is no longer used to associate the license to the server.

Instead, the license gets associated to a license MAC, which is a 12 digit HEX value created by hashing

Obtaining New Licenses

The process to redeem a Product Activation Key (PAK) for licenses at https://tools.cisco.com/SWIFT/Licensing/PrivateRegistrationServlet is changed for a license MAC. When redeeming a PAK for a license MAC at this URL, you get prompted to select the type of license that you want to obtain:

•A physical MAC address — this is used when Cisco Emergency Responder are installed on an MCS server.

•A license MAC address — this is used when Cisco Emergency Responder are installed on the Cisco UCS Servers.

After you make this selection, the generation and installation of the license file follows the same process.

Obtaining Rehosted Licenses When You Change License MAC Parameters

When you change the parameters that create the license MAC, the license that you obtained with it becomes invalid. You must request a re-hosting of the license to obtain a valid license. The old license continues to work for a 30-day grace period.

To rehost your licenses, you must open a case with the licensing team. Contact the licensing team at licensing@cisco.com,

Supported Virtual Machine Configurations and Licensing

The virtual machine configuration for running Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server, the Vmware server must match the specifications described in the System Requirements to get support from Cisco.

While Cisco Emergency Responder can be installed and licensed in other virtual machine configurations, Cisco does not support these configurations.

Migrating To Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server

Migrating from a Media Convergence Server (MCS server) to a Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server follows a procedure that is very similar to replacing server hardware.

Table 2-5 provides an overview of the migration process and references to other pertinent documentation.

If the Emergency Responder VM uses a different IP address or hostname than the MCS server, change the IP address and hostname of the MCS server to the values that the Emergency Responder VM use. This is required for DRS backup and restore to work.

See Cisco Emergency Responder Admin Guide Release 8.6.

Step 14

Perform a DRS backup on the MCS server.

See Cisco Emergency Responder Admin Guide Release 8.6.

Step 15

Create the virtual machine (VM) on the Cisco UCS server used as the replacement for the MCS node.

Daily operations for Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server software applications are identical to when the application is installed on an MCS server.

There are some differences in hardware management and monitoring, because Cisco Emergency Responder on the Cisco UCS Server operates in a virtual environment. The following sections describe how to perform these tasks:

Monitoring Hardware from the VM

Applications running in a VM have no ability to monitor the physical hardware. Hardware monitoring must be done from the CIMC, ESXi plugins, vCenter, or by physical inspection (for flashing LEDs, etc.).

Monitoring from CIMC

The CIMC provides the following hardware monitoring:

•An overview of CPU, memory and power supply health

•An overview of hardware inventory, including CPUs, memory, power supplies and storage

•Monitoring of sensors for power supplies, fans, temperature and voltage

•A system event log that contains BIOS and sensor entries

Monitoring from vSphere Client and vCenter

The vSphere Client provides the following monitoring features:

•When you are logged into vCenter, the vSphere Client displays hardware and system alarms defined on the Alarms tab.

•VM resource usage displays on the Virtual Machines tab, and on the Performance tab for each VM.

•Host performance and resource usage display on the Performance tab for the Host.

•When ESXi is used standalone (without vCenter), hardware status and resource usage are available, but alarming is not possible.

Related Documentation

The UCS RAID Controller SMI-S Reference Guide, which describes Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) support in the Cisco UCS Servers, is available at the following URL:

Installing Cisco Emergency Responder 8.6 on a New System

This procedure describes how to install Emergency Responder 8.6 as a new installation.

You enter Emergency Responder group configuration through the Emergency Responder Administration web interface based on Publisher (primary) and Subscriber (secondary) server pairs as described in the following topics:

Installing the CiscoEmergency Responder Publisher

To install Emergency Responder 8.6, you install the Publisher (primary) first, then you install the Subscriber (backup) on a separate server. You must install Emergency Responder on separate servers from Cisco Unified Communications Manager or any Cisco Unified Communications applications.

Allow approximately 1 hour to perform a new installation.

To install the Publisher, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1 Insert the Emergency Responder 8.6 Installation DVD.

If the system finds the DVD, you are asked if you want to perform a media check before installation to determine if there are problems with the DVD. The system displays the checksum of the DVD and instructs you to verify this checksum on the Emergency Responder 8.6 website.

At the bottom of the screen you will see instructions for moving between elements and for selecting elements, as follows:

•Use the Tab key to advance to the next element

•Use the Alt-Tab key combination to return to the previous element

•Use the Space bar to select a highlighted element

If you choose to perform the media check, the system performs the media check and displays the results.

If the result of the media check is PASS, click OK. The system install begins the installation. Skip to Step 2.

If the result of the media check is FAIL, obtain a new installation DVD from Cisco Systems.

If you click Skip, the system installs both the platform and Emergency Responder software without prompting you to provide information during the installation. Once the installation is completed and the system reboots, you are prompted to enter the required configuration details.

Step 5 The Import Windows Data page prompts you to import data from a Windows version of Emergency Responder. This page does not apply to fresh installations or to upgrades from earlier Linux-based versions of Emergency Responder. Click No to proceed with the fresh installation. The Basic Install page appears.

Step 14 On the second DNS Client Configuration page, you are prompted to enter the following information:

•Primary

•Secondary DNS (optional)

•Domain

Click OK. The Administration Login Configuration page appears.

Step 15 On the Administration Login Configuration page, enter an ID and password for the Administrator account. This password is used to access the CLI and the Cisco Unified OS Administration and Disaster Recovery System (DRS) websites. Click Help to display guidelines for creating this password.

When you have finished, click OK. The Certificate Information page appears.

Step 16 Enter the following information about the Certificate Information page:

•Organization

•Unit

•Location

•State

•Country (select from the scroll-down menu).

Click OK. The Publisher Configuration page appears.

Step 17 Based on the type of installation you are performing, do one of the following:

•If the server you are configuring is the Publisher in the server group, click Yes. The Network Time Protocol Client Configuration page appears. Proceed to Step 18.

•If the server you are installing is not the Publisher in the server group, you must first configure this server on the Publisher before you can proceed. Also, this server must have network access to the Publisher, which must be in service for the installation to complete successfully. Click No only if you are configuring the Subscriber. See the "Installing the Cisco Emergency Responder Subscriber" section for information about installing the Subscriber.

Step 18 On the Network Time Protocol Client Configuration page, you are asked if you want to set up external Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers.

Note Cisco strongly recommends that you use external NTP servers to ensure that the system time is kept accurate.

Caution For Emergency Responder install on UCS servers, it is mandatory to configure NTP server.

If you click Yes, the system displays a second Network Time Protocol Client Configuration page. In the fields provided, enter the IP address or hostname of the external NTP servers, then click OK. The Database Access Security Configuration page displays. Skip to Step 19.

If you click No, the Hardware Clock Configuration page appears. Enter the following information:

Step 19 On the Database Access Security Configuration page, enter the security password and then confirm the password in the fields provided.

Note The security password must be at least six characters long and can contain alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It must start with an alphanumeric character. The security password is used for secure communications between Emergency Responder server groups when performing installation/upgrade, DRS backup or restore, and "Point to a new Publisher" operations.

Click Help to display guidelines. When you finish, click OK. The SMTP Host Configuration page appears.

Step 20 You are asked if you want to configure a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) host. This step is optional.

•If you click Yes, a second SMTP Host Configuration page appears. Click Help for guidelines, then enter the SMTP hostname or IP address in the field provided. When you are finished, click OK. The Platform Configuration Confirmation page appears.

Step 21 On the Platform Configuration Confirmation page, do one of the following:

•Select OK to save the platform configuration information and continue with the installation. The Cisco Emergency Responder Configuration page appears.

Note Once you select OK, you can not modify the platform configuration information.

•Select Back if you want to return to the previous page to make modifications. Continue to select Back to scroll through each platform configuration page.

•Select Cancel to cancel the installation.

Step 22 On the Cisco Emergency Responder Configuration page, do the following:

•Enter the emergency number (for example, 911).

•Select the Cisco Unified Communications Manager version. Use the Up or Down arrows to select the version number, the select OK.

Step 23 On the Security End User Language Selection page, choose a language for the Cisco Emergency Responder web pages. The system defaults to the English language.

The Application User Password Configuration page appears.

Step 24 On the Application User Configuration page, enter the username and password. This username and password is associated with the default administrative account and is used to log in to the Emergency Responder Administration webpage. Click Help for guidelines.

Step 25 On the Cisco Emergency Responder Configuration Confirmation page, do one of the following:

•Select OK to save the Cisco Emergency Responder configuration information and continue with the installation. The system continues the installation process and then reboots.

Caution Once you select
OK, you can not modify the Cisco Emergency Responder configuration information.

•Select Back if you want to return to the previous page to make modifications. Continue to select Back to scroll through each Emergency Responder Application User Configuration page.

•Select Cancel to cancel the installation.

Step 26 After the system reboots, it checks the status of various system components. If the system finds any problems, you are prompted to correct the problem.

If the system does not find any problems, the installation process continues. The system ejects the installation DVD, reboot, and then finish the installation. When the installation is complete, a command-line interface prompt appears.

Note During this process, the system displays the MAC address of the Publisher. Write down the MAC address when it displays; you use the MAC address later to acquire Emergency Responder licenses. If you are not able to capture the MAC address during installation, you can look it up later. See the "Server Licenses" section for information about looking up the server MAC address.

Step 27 To bring up the Emergency Responder 8.6 websites, go to any Windows system on the network, start a supported web browser, and enter the following URL:

http://your Emergency Responder hostname/

or

http://your Emergency Responder IP address/

Note Make sure that the Emergency Responder is configured with DNS so that hostname is resolved to the IP address.

Installing the CiscoEmergency Responder Subscriber

After you install the Publisher, you must install the Emergency Responder Subscriber. You must install the Subscriber on a separate server from the Emergency Responder Publisher.

Caution You must complete the installation of the Publisher, which includes a system reboot, before you start to install the Subscriber.

To install the Emergency Responder 8.6 Subscriber, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 1 On the Publisher server, add the details about the Subscriber server by doing the following:

Step 3 On the Publisher Configuration page, select No to indicate that you are installing a Subscriber, not a Publisher. The system displays a warning saying that if this is not the Publisher, you must first configure this server using the Publisher Administration web interface before you can proceed (see Step 1 of this procedure for more information). Also, this server being added must have network access to the Publisher, which must be in service for the installation to complete successfully.

Click OK to close the warning.

Step 4 The Network Connectivity Test Configuration page appears. The system attempts to verify system connectivity. Click No to continue the installation.

Step 8 The Platform Configuration Complete page appears.Select one of the following options:

•If the Publisher information is correct, click OK.

•If the information is not correct, click the Back button and make the needed corrections on the Publisher Access Configuration page. Then, click OK.

The installation of the Emergency Responder Subscriber begins and takes an additional 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Step 9 When the installation completes, go to the Emergency Responder Administration website on the Subscriber to verify that the Subscriber was installed successfully. If the installation succeeded, a message saying "Primary Cisco Emergency Responder is active" appears. This message indicates that the Subscriber was installed successfully.

Upgrading to Emergency Responder 8.6

To upgrade from 7.1(1) or 8.0(1) to a later version of Emergency Responder 8.6, use the Cisco Unified OS Administration web interface. See the "Performing Software Upgrades" section for information about upgrading from Emergency Responder 7.1 to a later version of Emergency Responder 8.6.